Ticketmaster caused a stir earlier this week with a quiet update to their refund policy. The page previously indicated that “refunds are available if your event is postponed, rescheduled or canceled, with the only exception reserved for MLB games and US Open events.” However, the update changed it so postponed and rescheduled shows were no longer eligible for refunds. This came after Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, postponed all upcoming tours back in March.
Now, Live Nation and AEG, the two biggest players in the live entertainment space, have updated how they are handling all the rescheduled shows. Ticketholders can now get refunds, but there is a catch: The shows have to have been rescheduled with new dates announced (as The New York Times notes). This means that fans with tickets to shows that have been postponed indefinitely are not eligible for refunds.
AEG will offer refunds under those conditions, and buyers will have a 30-day window to request their money back, beginning on May 1 or on whenever the new dates are announced. Live Nation’s timeline is less clear, as they note, “Live Nation’s plan is to continue offering an opportunity for refunds on all of its rescheduled shows as new dates are set. We anticipate those windows will begin to open up on an event by event basis in the next few weeks.”
Ticketmaster previously offered a statement about their new policies, saying, “In the past, with a routine volume of event interruptions, we and our event organizers have been able to consistently offer more flexibility with refunds for postponed and rescheduled events. However, considering the currently unprecedented volume of affected events, we are focused on supporting organizers as they work to determine venue availability, new dates and refund policies, while rescheduling thousands of events in what continues to be an evolving situation.”
Movie productions will eventually resume. It’s true. The Directors Guild Of America has even appointed Steven Soderbergh to help get the ball rolling again, which means that Taika Waititi will get to do his offbeat thing with Thor: Love And Thunder after no one realistically (at least, not after The Dark World) expected a fourth Thor movie to materialize. Thanks to Taiki’s masterminding of Ragnarok, though, and added fuel from Chris Hemsworth’s jolly Thor in Avengers: Endgame, nerds are very excited to more of the God of Thunder, even if he’s no longer the King of New Asgard. Will Thor shed his “Fat Thor”/”Bro Thor” physique, though? That’s been a major question, especially while knowing that Natalie Portman’s Mighty Thor will pick up the hammer.
Do the powers that be want Thor to go back to being buff, or not? Tony Stark’s “Lebowski” comment hit the mark on the character’s Endgame vibe, but Taika Waititi doesn’t sound like he wants to continue with the Thor incarnation that launched so many Halloween costumes. When Waititi hosted an Instagram live viewing of Ragnarok earlier this week, he made it sound like Thor got on a Peleton kick. Via Comic Book Resource:
During a recent Instagram Live watch of Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi said the Marvel Cinematic Universe is done with “Fat Thor” and Hemsworth probably won’t put on a padded suit for Love and Thunder. “We haven’t figured that out, but I feel like that’s done,” Waititi said.
As much joy as Lebowski/Bro Thor brought to audiences, it makes sense to put that phase to sleep. “Fat Thor,” as he was initially dubbed, was a byproduct of the depression that consumed the Avengers in the first five years of Endgame‘s timeline. Even though Cap kept shaving, Black Widow let her red hair roots grow absurdly long, while Thor hit the bread bowl and beer. So yeah, he turned into an Asgardian Lebowski, but times have changed. Thanos went down, and Thor’s glee from that victory (and watching Cap swing the hammer) lifted his gloomy mood, even with Loki’s fate still ambiguous. Thor’s probably gonna get ripped again, and that’s definitely not the worst news in the world today. It’s be just fine.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to be an issue worldwide, and artists are doing their best to help through music. Some have even released new songs to benefit relevant causes, like Bon Iver with “PDLIF” and Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard with “Life In Quarantine.” Now Florence And The Machine have thrown their hat into that ring with a tune called “Light Of Love.” The anthemic ballad comes from the same sessions that yielded the 2018 album High As Hope.
Welch said on Instagram of the song, “‘Light of Love’ is an unreleased song from High as Hope, it never made it to the record, but I thought I would release it at midnight tonight, as a little token of my love. And to raise awareness for the Intensive Care Society, […] which provides care and support for the incredible doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals on the front line of this crisis. I will be donating all of my income from this song to the Intensive Care Society. I love and miss you all so much. With you in spirit from South London lockdown.”
Listen to “Light Of Love” above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Big Thief had a busy 2019, as they released a pair of new albums that year: U.F.O.F. came in May, and it was followed in October by Two Hands. It turns out both of those albums stemmed from February 2018, when the group spent the month recording in a Topanga Canyon, California cabin. 34 demos came from those sessions, some of which went on to appear on the aforementioned albums. Now, some of the other ones feature on a new EP from the group, Demos Vol. 1 — Topanga Canyon, CA — Feb 2018.
The band shared the EP today to benefit their touring crew, and it features three previously unreleased songs from the group. “Live Young” can be heard now, while the others can only be experienced after buying the EP on Bandcamp. The EP also features full-band recordings of two songs that ended up on Adrianne Lenker’s solo album Abysskiss: “Blue And Red Horses” and the title track.
Big Thief shared a statement about the release, writing:
“We spent the month of February 2018 in a cabin in Topanga Canyon, California, recording 34 demos that were boiled down to become UFOF and Two Hands, and we’re bringing a handful into light now to share with everyone. We chose 5 of our favorites – none of which appear on any Big Thief records and a couple of which appear in different forms on Adrianne’s abysskiss. 100% of the funds we make from this release will go to our faithful road crew, whose income has been impacted by the disruption in our touring schedule. They are the lifeblood of the Big Thief shows and we care so deeply for each and every one of them.”
Being in a quarantine is a big adjustment for most people, but not Seth Rogen.
As host Jimmy Kimmel put it during Thursday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the number-one fan of Cats is “a person who was actually cut out for this stay-at-home thing. I mean, your hair, your beard, just the kind of stuff you’re into.” Rogen did not disagree. “We are not all in this together,” he joked, “because this has not been that bad for me.” He’s gotten into pottery, and speaking of words that begin with the letters p-o-t, he’s been smoking an “ungodly” amount of pot. Thankfully, weed dispensaries are essential.
Kimmel also asked Rogen (who, I should note, was wearing an Alanis Morissette sweatshirt during the interview) about his live-tweeting of Cats. He knew nothing about Cats, either the musical or the movie, before watching the box office bomb, but was “shocked” to see how “crazy” and “appalling” it is. “It long supports a theory I have that when something is live, you have a much lower tolerance for how good or bad it is. Cats is the perfect example,” he continued. “That survived on Broadway for like 40 years. It sucks! As soon as you commit it to film, you see how it makes no sense.”
This week’s episode of Better Call Saul was intense. The episode sees Jimmy return from the desert, barely clinging to life after having survived dehydration by drinking on his own urine. He takes the $7 million he managed to haul across the desert after sharp-shooting Mike Ehrmantraut killed a gang of rivals, turns it over to the city to pay his client Lalo’s bail, and returns back home to convalesce.
Lalo, however, catches wind that not everything was as he was told. In the desert, Lalo’s curiousity is piqued when he spots Jimmy’s abandoned car full of bullet holes. Lalo returns to Kim and Jimmy’s apartment to question Jimmy about his story, and this is where the episode goes from heart-thumping to heart attack. Lalo has a gun; Jimmy is delivering the same story over and over while Lalo tries to catch him in a lie; Mike, on the roof of a nearby building, has his rifle trained on Lalo in case he decides to pull his gun, but Kim is standing between Mike and Lalo.
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The situation does not look good, and it feels all but certain that someone in this scenario is not going to make it out alive. But it’s not just because there are two guns and a tense stand-off in the sequence. It’s also because of a scene earlier in the episode that teases a potential death.
But let’s back up for a moment. Remember Ted Beneke? The man, who Skyler White was sleeping with in Breaking Bad, that tripped and hurt himself so badly that he had to be hospitalized?
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Note that those oranges are a reference to Godfather, because oranges in The Godfather appear whenever death is in the air. This callback has been made numerous times in other TV shows and movies, including Mad Men and The Wire. That’s exactly how they are used in Breaking Bad, as well. Remember Carol, the woman who dropped oranges out of her grocery bag?
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In other words, The Godfather and Breaking Bad have primed us for what to expect when we see oranges. And what did we see in this episode? Oranges basically being murdered. Early in the episode, Kim spends a few minutes making orange juice, which is not only triggering Jimmy’s PTSD, but the orange juice sprays all over Kim’s shirt.
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I don’t mean to frighten anyone, but orange juice spraying like blood is not a good omen here.
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That is either some very scary foreshadowing, or a remarkable piece of trolling by director Thomas Schnauz. Combine that with this particular shot of Kim staring through a bullet hole in Jimmy’s mug, and I would be very worried for someone in the season finale, although not necessarily Kim.
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The oranges mean that death is in the air, but it doesn’t have to mean that Kim is going to die. We know that Jimmy and Mike will make it, but we don’t know what happens to Lalo or Nacho (or Nacho’s father). What we do know, however, is that as far as Jimmy knows, Lalo and Nacho are still alive during the events of Breaking Bad. He does not, however, even mention Kim during Breaking Bad, so we don’t even have a clue at the moment as to her ultimate fate.
A modern homage to the classic whodunnits birthed by writers like Agatha Christie, the murder mystery flick was packed with a ridiculous amount of top-tier talent who looked to be having a hell of a time romping around a New England-set mansion, playing increasingly problematic characters who may, quite literally, have blood on their hands.
The many memes and odes to Chris Evans’ waffle-knit sweater were enough to justify the twist-filled plot – a famous crime novelist named Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is killed and it’s up to Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig sporting a slow Southern drawl as thick as molasses) to suss out which privileged heir is the culprit.
He’s got plenty of suspects to choose from – Evans’ arrogant Ransom; Michael Shannon’s bitter Walt, Thrombey’s son who wanted to push his father’s publishing arm into the 21st century; Harlan’s daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), a shrewd businesswoman who never earned her start; Marta (Ana de Armas), the hired help constantly enduring the family’s thinly-veiled classism; Toni Collette’s Joni, a woman we can only guess is based off Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop-persona … and that’s without mentioning the grandkids which include a self-righteous college-aged Meg (Katherine Langford) and a neo-Nazi troll (Jaeden Martell).
Watching these elitists bicker and squabble over their right to their father’s fortune as Blanc narrates flashbacks that reveal a bit more of the crime with each new clue uncovered is more than just a good time – it’s good cinema, the kind that harks back to films like The Last of Sheila and Murder on the Orient Express. Johnson gave us colorful, eccentric characters with depth and motivations that made the film’s selling gimmick – the silent “Can you guess who did it” challenge – that much more interesting.
And he did it so well he’s left us craving more, which is why we’re digging into the roots of the genre to find a couple of movies that trade in the same spirit as this modern mystery masterpiece. These are films that inspired and laid the groundwork for Johnson’s eventual murder plot and they’re worth a watch, especially if you can’t get enough of iconic characters, bloody crimes, and thrilling twists.
Brick (2005)
If this neo-noir mystery proves anything it’s that Johnson’s been honing his skills in this particular genre for quite a while. His directorial debut stars a fresh-faced Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a high school student trying to piece together the events that led to his girlfriend’s death. Steeped in a hardboiled detective style, littered with snappy lines of dialogue and head-scratching wordplay, and borrowing character inspiration from cult anime series Cowboy Bebop, Johnson gave audiences a dark teen thriller that would stand the test of time.
As Brendan Frye, Gordon-Levitt is an emotionally tortured young hero, looking to uncover the truth about his girlfriend Emily’s (Emilie de Ravin) disappearance. He’s forced to trade with drug-dealers and kingpins and fellow students who play in this underground world of crime and Johnson’s able to weave classic murder mystery tropes within this high school hierarchy.
Brick is significantly darker than Knives Out, which serves the story better. Adding too much humor might’ve reduced this to a parody. So don’t come to this film expecting many laughs – though the quick-witted dialogue is often entertaining. Instead, view Brick the first stage in Johnson’s genre evolution, a serious, strait-laced undertaking that proves just as inventive as his current work but with less cheek.
In fact, if it’s more slapstick comedy you’re looking for, you need to revisit this 80s romp starring Tim Curry which is based on the classic board game of the same name.
The film’s become a cult hit over the years and it shares plenty of similarities with Johnson’s modern tale. Both stories are set in elaborate New England mansions. Both center around an unsolved crime – in Clue’s case, quite a few unsolved crimes. Both boast a cast of chaotic, memorable characters whose place in the bigger mystery remains up in the air into the closing act.
Clue trades in more over-the-top physical comedy led by Curry’s butler, Wadsworth (whose fast-paced reenactment of the night’s events in the film’s final scenes is a work of comedic brilliance) and supported by talents like Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren. Filled with cheesy jokes and secret passageways, alternate endings and screwball humor, Clue’s character-work feels like the most direct inspiration for Knives Out. The film established archetypes with characters like Kahn’s suspicious widow, Mull’s corrupt Colonel Mustard, and Llyod’s disgraced Professor Plum, each assigned a colorful pseudonym harking back to the boardgame.
These characters are confined in a space that feels like its own distinct character in the film, one where bodies can be hidden in cupboards and hidden tunnels spill out into servants quarters. The film’s director, Jonathan Lynn, makes use of the set in much the same way Johnson does in his film, having it play a key role in how the crime was committed, helping audiences eliminate suspects by setting certain scenes in specific rooms at various times of the day. Wadsworth, much like Benoit Blanc, feels very in the know, even as he plays dumb about the motives and likeliness of each culprit, eventually walking us all through the night’s events with a sureness that makes us suspect he was in control the entire time.
If anything, Knives Out feels like a slightly more sophisticated riff on this cult comedy, one that’s happy to poke fun at its shared themes. At one point in Johnson’s film, LaKeith Stanfield’s detective describes Harlan Thrombey as a man who “practically lives on a Clue board.”
What both films share is a commitment to squeezing the most from their talented casts and the knowledge that the best murder mysteries don’t rely on twists and turns in the plot, but the characters steering it to make the story memorable.
Sure, there are plenty of other whodunnits you can try that live in the same world as Knives Out – Donald Glover’s Mystery Team, Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine in Sleuth, the fresh horror-comedy Ready or Not, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Murder on the Orient Express … we could go on – but to understand the film’s essence and to bask in its original inspiration, you’ll need to add these two films to your list.
Netflix keeps us entertained this week with a couple of new series and a thrilling biopic with some familiar faces. First up is a Goonies-approved teen mystery set on the North Carolina coast that has everything you could want — think treasure hunts and missing parents. Next is Black-ish creator Kenya Barris’ meta-comedy based on his own life and starring Rashida Jones. And finally, there’s Sergio, a star-studded drama based on a gripping true story.
Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix this week of April 17.
Outer Banks (Netflix series streaming 4/15)
Netflix’s latest teen drama is like an aged up Goonies, but with a lot more angst. The series follows a trio of friends investigating missing persons and looking for lost treasure on the North Carolina coast. The setting is familiar to anyone who’s seen a Nicholas Sparks movie, but the drama is, surprisingly, entertaining. There are enough twists to keep you intrigued, even if watching a bunch of suntanned hotties frolicking on the beach gives you serious FOMO because, you know, corona.
Rashida Jones and Black-ish creator Kenya Barris team up for this comedy series that carries a bit more edge than its cousin over on ABC. The show follows an over-the-top version of Barris and his struggles to connect with his wife Joya (Jones) and his six kids. Wielding a mockumentary type format — Barris’ oldest daughter is an NYU student doing a doc on the family’s life and her father’s career — it’s meta to the nth degree and as unlikable as some of the characters are, it’s the kind of interestingly funny comedy we don’t see often which makes it worthy of a watch.
Narcos star Wagner Moura stars as the title character in this biopic about United Nations diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello, a lauded humanitarian and peacekeeper who was assassinated in a hotel bombing in 2003. The film starts with that tragedy, working backward to tell the story of a man on the brink of greatness and the people who helped get him there.
Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:
Avail. 4/14 Chris D’Elia: No Pain
Avail. 4/15 The Innocence Files
Outer Banks
Avail. 4/16 Despicable Me
Fary: Hexagone: Season 2 Fauda: Season 3 Hail, Caesar!
Mauricio Meirelles: Levando o Caos
Jem and the Holograms
Avail. 4/17 Betonrausch
#blackAF
Earth and Blood (La terre et le sang) The Last Kids on Earth: Book 2 Legado en los huesos
Sergio
Too Hot to Handle
And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:
Leaving 4/19 The Longest Yard
Leaving 4/24 The Ugly Truth
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